How long does beetroot take to digest in the human body? Digestion time of foods in the stomach: important aspects in gastroenterology
Important processes of mechanical and chemical processing of food and its preparation for further digestion in the intestine take place in the stomach. Due to its shape in the form of a bag, the stomach contributes to the accumulation of food masses and their delay for some time. This is necessary for a more complete processing of food. But not all foods are digested and absorbed at the same rate. Depending on the type of food is in the stomach from a few minutes to several hours.
- 1. Food processed by gastric juice for more than 3 hours.
- 2. Dishes that take 2 to 3 hours to digest.
- 3. Products that are in the stomach from 1.5 to 2 hours.
- 4. Food that does not require more than an hour to digest.
- Grapes and citrus fruits are digested in the stomach for about 30 minutes.
- A ripe banana will take 50 minutes to process, while a green one will take about an hour.
- It also takes about an hour to split the pineapple pulp.
- The most difficult fruit to digest is mango, which takes about 2 hours.
- Faster than all products, the stomach will leave kefir (up to 90 minutes).
- Curdled milk, yogurt and fermented baked milk will take up to 2 hours
- Fat-free cottage cheese will take about 2 hours to digest, and it will take up to 3 hours to break down a more fatty product.
- Oatmeal is the fastest to digest (up to 90 minutes). But whole grains can take up to 2 hours to process.
- Buckwheat, millet, rice groats need about 2 hours.
- The stomach will cope with corn in 150 minutes.
- Fresh peas are in the stomach for up to 160 minutes.
- Boiled peas require about 3.5 hours to digest.
- The organ will spend 3 hours on lentils and beans.
- Pork tenderloin leaves the stomach after 210 minutes of processing. Fatter parts require much more time.
- The body needs to spend about 3 hours on lamb and beef.
- The heaviest product is lard, which can take up to a whole day to digest.
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Digestion in the stomach in children and adults
The human stomach is able to digest most of the products that enter it. Food processing occurs due to the production of two main components by the gastric glands - pepsin and hydrochloric acid. They come into contact with the food that has entered the stomach and turn it into chyme - a homogeneous mushy mass, which is then evacuated through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum.
The process lasts from half an hour to several hours, depending on the type of food eaten. This is what happens in adults. In infants, the stomach is poorly developed, has a small volume and is able to digest only breast or cow's milk. Digestion in the stomach of a newborn child lasts no more than three hours, which explains the need for frequent feeding.
Product types
The quality composition of the products affects the time of digestion of food in the stomach. Based on this, 4 types of dishes can be distinguished:
The first type includes almost all canned food, dumplings, meat, poultry, coffee and tea with milk, as well as pasta made from first grade flour. The second category of dishes includes bread and other pastries, hard cheeses, cereals, legumes, cottage cheese, all kinds of mushrooms, seeds and nuts. The third type includes different types of vegetables, dried fruits, herbs, dairy products (except for hard cheeses and cottage cheese). The fourth group includes vegetable and fruit juices, kefir, berries, fresh fruits (except banana), chicken egg.
Digestion time of individual foods in the stomach:
| Products | Digestion time |
| Water | Goes directly into the intestines |
| vegetable broth | Up to 20 minutes |
| vegetable juice | Up to 20 minutes |
| Fruit juice | Up to 20 minutes |
| Fresh vegetables and vegetable salads without dressing | Up to 40 minutes |
| Berries and fruits containing a lot of water | 20 minutes |
| Pears, apples, peaches | 30 minutes |
| Boiled vegetables | Up to 40 minutes |
| Corn, zucchini, all types of cabbage | Up to 45 minutes |
| Most root vegetables (except those containing starch) | 50 minutes |
| Fresh vegetable salads with vegetable oil | Up to 1 hour |
| Egg | 45 minutes |
| Fish | Up to 1 hour |
| Vegetables containing starch | 1.5 to 2 hours |
| Cereal porridge (buckwheat, millet, rice and others) | Up to 2 hours |
| Dairy products (milk, kefir, yogurt, fermented baked milk), except for hard cheeses and cottage cheese | up to 2 hours |
| Legumes | up to 2 hours |
| poultry meat | 2.5 to 3 hours |
| Various types of seeds | 3 hours |
| nuts | 3 hours |
| Beef and lamb | 4 hours |
| Pork | 5.5 to 6 hours |
Digestion of individual foods in the stomach
Despite the fact that many products can be combined into separate groups in terms of processing time, there are also differences within the groups themselves in terms of their residence time in the body.
Water
Drinking water does not carry an energy load, therefore it does not require digestion and a long stay in the stomach. Drinking on an empty stomach, it immediately enters the small intestine.
Fresh fruits
The rate of fruit processing in the stomach directly depends on the content of carbohydrates and water in them:
Dairy
The rate of digestion of dairy products is affected by their fat content, the method of preparation and storage:
Cereals and legumes
Various types of cereals pass through the stomach in 2-3 hours. Legumes, although they are vegetable crops, require quite a lot of time to digest, as they contain a large amount of protein in their composition:
Bread
The rate of digestion of bread depends on the grain from which it is made, as well as the ingredients added during the cooking process. Rye or wheat bread usually stays in the stomach for 2 to 3 hours.
Hard cheeses
The digestion time of hard cheeses depends on their fat content. Processing low-fat varieties can take up to 3 hours. Fatty cheese made from whole milk will stay in the stomach for up to 5 hours.
Meat and meat products
Digestion of meat depends on many quality characteristics (fat content, freshness, etc.):
poultry meat
It takes about 90 minutes for the stomach to process chicken breast. More fatty parts will take more than 2 hours. Turkey also takes a little over 2 hours to digest. Duck and goose, due to the fat content of meat, can be in the stomach for about 3 hours.
Digestion of food, depending on its type, takes from 15 minutes to 6 hours, however, these time frames have individual fluctuations. The maximum activity of the digestive tract occurs in the middle of the day, the minimum - at night, according to this, the time for digestion of food changes. In children and young people, digestion is accelerated, in the elderly it is slowed down. Slow down digestion and pervert its diseases and digestive disorders. Food combinations also affect the speed - if they have different digestion times, the total time spent in the gastrointestinal tract increases.
From several factors:
- chemical composition - carbohydrates are absorbed the fastest, their digestion begins already in the oral cavity, followed by proteins, and fats close the list, for the breakdown of which many enzymes and the entire surface of the small intestine are required;
- water content in the product - the more water, the faster the absorption;
- food temperature - cold food is digested several times faster;
- cooking methods - raw foods are digested within an hour, and the assimilation of complex dishes of multi-stage cooking can take many hours;
- food combinations - dishes from foods with approximately the same digestion time are quickly digested;
- uniformity of food intake and portion sizes - fractional meals with a break of no more than 3 hours and a volume of about 1 cup are recognized as the most physiological;
- eating habits without a feeling of severe hunger - if the previous portion of food is not digested, the absorption of the next one slows down, fermentation processes develop.
Easily and indigestible foods
By the time of assimilation, all products can be distributed as follows.
| Category | Products | Digestion time, hour |
| Easily digestible | Fruit and vegetable juices, vegetable broth | 15 – 20 minutes |
| Juicy raw fruits eaten separately - watermelon, melon, cucumber, tomato, orange, grapes | 30 to 60 minutes | |
| stone fruit - cherry, apricot, peach | up to 50 minutes | |
| raw vegetable salads without dressing | 40 minutes | |
| boiled vegetables - zucchini, squash, cauliflower | 30 – 40 minutes | |
| fatty fish in salted, boiled or baked form - herring, salmon, trout | 45 to 60 minutes | |
| lean fish - boiled and baked | up to 40 minutes | |
| eggs | 50 minutes | |
| root crops - beets, carrots, turnips | ||
| skinless poultry meat - turkey, chicken | up to 1 hour | |
| Medium digestible | avocado | up to 2 hours |
| boiled whole grains - rice, buckwheat, millet, corn, barley, oatmeal | up to 90 minutes | |
| legumes - peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils | up to 90 minutes | |
| seeds, sesame, soy | up to 2 hours | |
| meat broth, cocoa | up to 2 hours | |
| dairy products - milk, low-fat cottage cheese and cheese | up to 2 hours | |
| nuts - peanuts, cashews, walnuts | up to 3 hours | |
| raw vegetable salad with butter | from 1.5 hours | |
| rye bread and potatoes, ham | ||
| Hard to digest | hard fatty cheeses | 4 hours or more |
| fatty and fibrous meats - horse meat, beef, lamb | 5 or more hours | |
| fried meat and mushrooms | from 4 hours | |
| indigestible | vegetable fiber, fruit peel, hard cartilage |
How to speed up the digestion time of food?
It is necessary to speed up digestion only when there are violations, and the doctor confirmed the presence of the disease. In all other cases, it is better not to interfere in the processes regulated by nature itself, so as not to harm yourself with rash actions.
If such a need still exists, you can use the following methods:
When I eat I am deaf and dumb
This saying is true in all cases. When a person eats, he should not do anything else. Nutrition is the most important process for sustaining life. Food is the "fuel" on which each of us lives. Everything that interferes with digestion must be set aside:
Food swallowed "under stress" cannot bring benefits. When a person is involved in emotions, whether positive or negative, the whole organism reacts to it. The heart speeds up, the lungs breathe faster, and the stomach and intestines contract. Normal digestion against the background of the scandal is completely impossible. Food is "stale", rotting begins with all the ensuing consequences.
What about in other countries?
In many nations, the laws concerning food are dictated by the peculiarities of the climate. The Jews were especially successful in this. Their food is divided into 3 types: meat, dairy and neutral - cereal and fruit and vegetable. In the kitchens of many restaurants, and some at home, there are 2 refrigerators - separately for meat and dairy products.
Before the invention of the refrigerator, the separate consumption of meat and milk protected Jews from food poisoning in the heat of the day. Over time, this acquired a religious consecration, but the principles remained unchanged.
For those who have slow digestion, it makes sense to adhere to this division. Meat and milk are digested in completely different ways, since proteins have a completely different structure, different enzymes and digestive juices are required. The simultaneous "loading" of the digestive system with heterogeneous proteins and fats can significantly disrupt digestion in those who already have a defect. Therefore, it is advisable to use meat and dairy food separately, mixing it only with neutral - cereals, pasta, vegetables.
You can also avoid complex gravies and sauces that contain a lot of superheated fats. It is convenient to bake meat with fruit - organic acids not only make it soft, but add flavor and perfectly replace the sauce.
It doesn’t take much to “tune” digestion - just don’t throw anything into your mouth.
Digestion of food means the processing of food in the stomach for a certain amount of time. Here the main process of food processing takes place with further direction to the sections of the large and small intestines. In them, it is absorbed to a greater extent. Fruits belong to the class of carbohydrates. They are distinguished by the speed of decomposition as a result of the general action of the alkaline component of saliva and the acid component of the stomach.
Features of the digestion of fruits
Now the opinion prevails about the need for separate intake of different types of products - proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The period of digestion of proteins and lipids in the stomach is equal to the time of their splitting. But one thing is how meat and dairy products behave in the stomach, and another thing is how persimmons or fruits that grow in temperate latitudes are digested.
Carbohydrates, which at first glance are easier to decompose into elementary components, require the separation of periods of digestion and assimilation. The reason is not just in the consistent use of food, but in different splitting rates. And this determines the possibilities of physiological processes in the endocrine and digestive systems. Interaction reactions are long. They begin with mechanical and enzymatic treatment with saliva. They end up in the large intestine. The duration of the processes is from 30 minutes to 7-8 hours. Everything that has not had time to be digested is in the large intestine for about 20 hours.
Important! Optimal fruit digestion time is determined by key factors:
- the composition of food products;
- the presence of oils of vegetable or animal origin;
- simultaneous use of water, tea, other liquids;
- thoroughness of chewing.
The simultaneous use of the first and second courses, and then, immediately after them, fruits is not welcome. In this case, carbohydrates are retained in the stomach and reactions begin with the release of gases. It is allowed to mix food with apples, pears, carrot-banana mixture.
The digestion time of an apple in the stomach is like that of a pear. Similarly, carrots and bananas are herbs with a longer processing time than other fruits. The reason for this selection is the need for the body to produce similar enzymes.
Vegetable oil is not added to fruit dishes, but together with some vegetables it makes the diet more varied. This is especially true for children who are sick people. Therefore, how many hours a banana with cereals is digested depends on the type and quality of the latter. It is known that sunflower oil prolongs the absorption of plant foods by 2-3 times.
Together with the liquid from the stomach, undigested particles of berries enter the intestines, which begin to ferment and rot there. Water must be drunk separately, before meals.
The digestion process accelerates good chewing. This is especially true for the coarse connective tissue of the peel of apples, pears, plums. It is largely decomposed by the action of salivary enzymes. Then, getting into the stomach, it undergoes the splitting activity of gastric and pancreatic juices.
How much fruit is digested in the stomach?
The minimum time the body needs to process berries and watermelon is 20 minutes, fruit and fruit and vegetable mixtures - up to 50 minutes. The difference is due to the presence of more fiber in vegetables. Berries and watermelon are more than 90% liquid, so they absorb quickly.
For lovers of a raw food diet, it is important to know the rate of assimilation of different fruits. Nutritionists have compiled a table from which you can see how much an apple, pear, plum, grapes are digested. For them, the duration of assimilation is from 30 to 40 minutes. Unlike berries, these fruits have a sufficient amount of dense fiber in the peel. The same applies to:
- cherries;
- sweet cherry;
- peaches
- apricots.
Juices from these products are absorbed into the blood after 0.1-0.2 hours.
How much grapefruit, tangerines and other fruits are digested in the stomach?
Citrus fruits are useful because they contain many micronutrients of the C, B, A, E and PP groups. Moreover, there are more vitamins in the peel of the fruit than in the pulp. Many people with a healthy gastrointestinal tract consume, especially lemons. It contains valuable trace elements, sugars, acids and pectins. Orange, grapefruit are split in the stomach in half an hour, like most other fruits. These are plants that are easy on the stomach. The processes of fermentation, secretion, passage of the food bolus are not energy intensive. A large amount of fluid is instantly absorbed by the cells. Only a minimal amount of fiber remains, which is excreted from the body. By the amount of fat, the fruit of the alligator pear is inferior to coconut. In time, it “burns out” in the stomach in 90 to 120 minutes.
How are bananas and avocados digested?
These tropical fruits do not belong to the first group of easily digestible plant products. For example, avocados contain an increased amount of vegetable fats and proteins. The latter are 10 times more in the fruit than in an apple. Fats further increase the digestion time of the fruit, the calorie content of which is even higher than that of a banana. The fruit is digested for about 60-120 minutes. Avocado nutritionally is not inferior to a chicken egg and meat.
A ripe banana needs 40-45 minutes to completely dissolve in the bowels of the gastrointestinal tract. The ripened berry additionally lingers in the stomach for a quarter of an hour. This is not an easy meal for the entire digestive system. For good digestibility, the pieces need to be chewed well. You can not buy unripe fruits for people suffering from poor digestion. It is also undesirable to purchase tropical fruits with damaged skins. Otherwise, bloating, heartburn, slow absorption will appear.
How long does persimmon take to digest?
With all the many beneficial properties of tannin and pectin, which are in it, do not contribute to normal digestion. This is one of the rare cases when berries should be eaten after a meal. Otherwise, the astringent property of tannin causes the fruit to stick together into dense lumps - bezoars. They gradually accumulate in the stomach and form gastric stones, which can only be removed by surgery. Persimmon digestion time in the stomach is up to 50 minutes.
The fruit is forbidden to give to people:
- in the postoperative period;
- having adhesions in the intestines;
- with acute intestinal obstruction;
- suffering from obesity.
Water. When you drink water on an empty stomach, it immediately enters the intestines.
Juices. Fruit juices, as well as vegetable juices and broths are digested for 15-20 minutes.
semi-liquid products. Mixed salads, as well as vegetables and fruits, are digested within 20-30 minutes.
Fruit. Watermelon is digested in 20 minutes. Melons take 30 minutes to digest.
Oranges, grapes and grapefruits also take half an hour to digest.
Apples, pears, peaches, cherries and other semi-sweet fruits are digested in 40 minutes.
Raw vegetables. Vegetables that go into a salad raw, such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, celery, red or green peppers and other juicy vegetables, require 30-40 minutes to process. If vegetable oil is added to the salad, then the time increases to more than an hour.
Steamed vegetables or in water, greens are digested in 40 minutes.
Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, boiled corn with butter are digested in 45 minutes.
It takes at least 50 minutes for the body to process such root crops as turnips, carrots, beets and parsnips.
Legumes are starches and proteins. Lentils, lima and common beans, chickpeas, cajanus (pigeon peas), and others require 90 minutes to assimilate. Soy is digested in 120 minutes.
Seeds and nuts. Sunflower, pumpkin, melon pear and sesame seeds are digested for about two hours. Nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts (raw), cashew nuts, pecans, walnuts and Brazil nuts are digested in 2.5-3 hours. If the seeds and nuts are soaked in water overnight and then crushed, they will be absorbed faster.
Dairy. Fat-free homemade cheese, cottage cheese and feta cheese are processed within about 90 minutes. Curd from whole milk is digested in 2 hours.
Whole-milk hard cheese, such as Swiss cheese, takes 4-5 hours to digest. Hard cheeses take longer to digest than all other foods due to the high amount of fat and protein they contain.
Eggs: 30 minutes to process an egg yolk, 45 minutes to process a whole egg.
Fish like common and small cod, flounder, and halibut fillets are digested in half an hour. Salmon, trout, tuna, herring (more oily fish) are processed in the stomach within 45-60 minutes.
Chicken (without skin) - one and a half to two hours.
Turkey (without skin) - two to two hours and fifteen minutes.
Beef and lamb are digested within three to four hours.
It will take 4.5-5 hours to process pork.
Consider the digestion time of various foods. I think it will be of interest to many and each person should have an idea about this. Knowing the digestion time of foods is very important for maintaining your health. If you know the digestion time of food, you can prepare dishes that will be digested normally in your stomach and will not poison the body with toxins from undigested food residues.
Speaking about the time of digestion of food, we will understand the full cycle, that is, the period of time that is necessary for the products to be completely broken down into useful substances. Many gastroenterologists will tell you that the digestion time of even heavy meat products does not exceed 4-5 hours. But they talk about the time of digestion of foods in the stomach. In fact, food is not in the stomach for more than 4 hours. After that, it enters first into the small intestine, where the process of assimilation takes place, and then into the large intestine for excretion.
The figures below are average values. The time of digestion and assimilation also depends on the individual characteristics of the body, on the diet, food composition, the amount of food eaten and on the compatibility of products with each other. So friends, let's look at which products pass through our stomach almost instantly, and which ones stay there for long hours.
Water - if your stomach is empty, then water passes immediately into the intestines.
Fruits and vegetables
Fruits are digested on average 30-60 minutes. Energy and enzymes are almost not spent on the digestion of fruits.
Fruit and vegetable juices and vegetable broths - 20-30 minutes.
Semi-liquid juices, such as pureed vegetable or fruit salad - 20-30 minutes. For example, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice will leave our stomach within 20 minutes after you drink it.
Juicy fruits: oranges, apples, pears, plums and so on. For example, a couple of eaten juicy and fragrant oranges will leave the stomach in 30-40 minutes. Grapefruits, grapes - 30 minutes. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, etc. - 40 minutes
Fleshy fruits and dried fruits: bananas, figs, dates will pass the stomach in more time than juicy fruits, but still very quickly compared to the products that follow. Watermelon - 20 minutes. Melons - 30 minutes.
Raw mixed vegetable salads - tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, celery, green or red peppers, other juicy vegetables - 30-40 minutes
Leafy vegetables - spinach, chicory, kale - 40 minutes
Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, pumpkin, corn on the cob - 45 minutes
Root vegetables - carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, etc. - 50 minutes
Cereals, cereals and legumes
Grain digestion time
Concentrated carbohydrates - cereals and cereals. The time of digestion of cereals and cereals in the stomach increases dramatically. Therefore, it is recommended to eat fruits on an empty stomach, separately from cereals and cereals. A plate of ordinary porridge leaves the stomach only after 4-5 hours!
Brown rice, millet, buckwheat, cornmeal, oats, pearl barley - 90 minutes
Durum wheat pasta - 3 hours
Semi-concentrated carbohydrates - starches, Jerusalem artichoke, acorns, corn, potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, yams, chestnuts - 60 minutes
legume digestion time
Beans and legumes. Ordinary peas and chickpeas, lentils, beans (white, red, black) are digested in an hour and a half. Soybeans - 2 hours
Cereals or legumes of the same type: 2.5-3 tsp.
A mixture of grains and / or legumes (no more than two types): 3-3.5 hours.
A mixture of grains and / or legumes (more than two types): more than 4-5 hours.
Nuts and seeds
Seeds - sunflower, pumpkin, sesame - about 2 hours
Nuts - almonds, peanuts (raw), cashews, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts are digested in 2.5-3 hours.
Tip: If seeds and nuts are soaked overnight in water and then crushed, they will digest faster.
Soaked nuts: 1.5 tsp
Dairy
Raw milk slowly leaves the stomach, pasteurized even more slowly and boiled even more slowly. High-fat milk passes through the stomach more slowly than low-fat milk.
Skimmed milk, ricotta, low-fat cottage cheese, cheese, homemade cheese are digested for about 90 minutes.
Milk is completely digested in 12 hours. Tea or coffee with milk: 24 hours
Whole milk cottage cheese - 2 hours
Hard cheese made from whole milk, such as Dutch and Swiss cheese, will take 4 to 5 hours to digest.
Sour milk drinks - 1 hour
animal squirrels
Boiled eggs stay in the stomach longer than raw eggs. The scrambled eggs stay there for a long time as well.
Egg yolk - 30 minutes
Egg (totally) - 45 minutes.
Fish - 45-60 minutes
Chicken - 1-2 hours (no skin)
Turkey - 2 hours (no skin)
Beef, lamb - 3-4 hours
Pork - 4-5 hours
On average, meat is digested in the stomach within 4-5 hours, and absorbed by the body for a very long time. Bacon is digested slowly, because of the fat it lowers stomach acidity. For most people, it is difficult to digest. Fat significantly prevents the release of gastric juice after eating, reduces absorption and delays the digestion process.
Fatty food. It can be either fat in its pure form, for example, lard, or just fatty meat or fish, ice cream, and so on. Fat greatly inhibits gastric digestion. Fatty foods take the longest to digest. By the way, fatty fried meat, for example, barbecue, is digested up to 72 hours, while our body spends a lot of energy on digesting such food. A person who regularly eats meat carries in himself several kilograms of feces, which turn into toxins and release toxins that poison the body.
It is not important how long the food is in the stomach, but in what form, digested or not digested (digested or not fully digested), it will pass into the intestines, and what will happen to it next.
